By William Mackay: Trainer Freddie Roach is legendary for helping fighters come up with strategies to win important fights. However, if you look at most of the fighters that Roach works with, he starts off with a super talented fighter with few defects and this helps immensely in Roach’s fighters winning using his different game plans. Roach’s new hyped project is WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s), who faces the unpleasant task of fighting Argentinian knockout artist Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 K’s) Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This would be a tough enough fight for any fighter, but for one with a weak chin like Khan, this is a much tougher fight. Roach now has to come up with a strategy to keep Khan from pretty much getting hit at all, because Maidana hits incredibly hard with every punch and punches harder than any other fighter that Khan has been in with during his career. Khan has faced exactly one hard puncher during his career, Breidis Prescott, who promptly quickly disposed of Khan after staggering him first with a hard jab and then knocking him down with twice with left hooks.

Maidana hits a lot harder than Prescott, which puts a ton of pressure on Roach to figure out some kind of way to keep Khan from getting hit by this monstrous puncher. It’s almost a no-win situation for Roach, because Maidana will Khan no matter what and Khan will probably do what he’s done in the past and will sink to the canvas. I wish I could see it another way than this, but this is how I think it’s going to go. Roach has to come up with an even more innovative plan if he wants to keep Khan upright for 12 rounds. It’s going to have to be something along the lines of running, covering up and dipping of Khan’s head as low as possible to keep from getting clouted by Maidana.

If there was a hole for Khan to stick his head for 12 rounds, I think he could stay on his feet long enough to win a controversial decision. However, I see Maidana chasing Khan down, landing a big shot and sending him out of the ring on a stretcher. Even a genius like Roach has his limitations. He needs talent without glaring flaws like Khan’s weak chin for him to do well. You can’t have Roach looking like a genius if his fighter is facing a monstrous puncher and doesn’t have the chin to take his shots. This won’t be a catch weight fight, and Maidana will be coming into the fight at full strength. I see a bad knockout of Khan.